The Three Investigators

[Bannerman65]

Viking Star and Lucky Star.

That Vanishing Mummy, was The Mystery Of The Whispering Mummy, which is book 3 in the series. There is a Three Investigators book, called The Mystery Of The Vanishing Treasure, which is book 5 in the series.

[Julie2owlsdene]

It's years since I read some of these books. I hardly remember them now.

[Bannerman65]

I used to have up to, and including, The Mystery Of The Shrinking House. Until I was stupid enough to throw them away.

I now have a few of the books, including a couple of hardbacks. I'm hoping to find the rest in second hand book stores.

[Ian Regan]

The first chapter of Robert Arthur's original manuscript for The Mystery of the Talking Skull can now be seen at Seth Smolinske's marvellous website:

http://www.threeinvestigatorsbooks.com/ ... cript.html" target="_blank

While you're reading this manuscript, bear in mind that Mr Arthur sadly didn't live to see this book published, which was the last he wrote for the series before his untimely death in 1969.

Ian.

[Bannerman65]

Thak you for sharing this with us. I'll read it, after I've gotten some sleep.

[Nearby]

I loved this series as a kid, and along with the Hardy Boys series, owned just about every title bar an elusive half a dozen. Now sadly all gone as a result of a major clear out (I couldn't move for books!) My favourite title of the series was "The Mystery of the Silver Spider". Definitely worth a re-visit.

Fans might be interested to know that like the latter Claude Voilier continuations of the Famous Five series, the 3 Investigators series was continued for a few books with the 3 as young adults (around 17 years of age) driving their own cars, having girlfriends etc. I think there was about 8 titles in 4 books, with 2 titles to each book. It's been quite a while though, so the only details I remember is that one edition was entitled Rough Stuff / Funny Business.

[Philip Mannering]

These books are great! I've started to read them now; so far my favourite is Stuttering Parrot (no unusual surprise there!). I also like Terror Castle very much, though it's (to me) very much like Scooby Doo.

I feel this books are much, much better than the other detective and mystery series such as Hardy Boys (the work of the Stratemyer Syndicate.) Not only are the mysteries better and more puzzling, but the quality of writing is higher.

Don't know comparing this to Find-Outers though. Jupiter may be an American Fatty, but where is Bets? Also, the mysteries are different. There is nothing in this "better" than the other; both are fantastic series....

Whispering Mummy and Skeleton Island were not as better as the others I think. Even Fiery Eye was not that good, although a good and a puzzling read. The first book I read in this series is Silver Spider. As it is the first book I read, naturally it holds a special place in my heart. However, it too is on level of Fiery Eye.

My next read will be Screaming Clock. Looking forward to reading it. (I have missed Vanishing Treasure and Green Ghost - weren't available...)

[Wolfgang]

I also like the three investigators. At least the early books, the later ones became quite boring, especially the German continuation stories. I also loved the Europa audioplays in which Oliver Rohrbeck was Jupiter Jones, and he was Julian in the Europa Famous Five audioplays.
Extremely interesting is the DVD of "Stuttering Parrot" in which Europa made a performance in a Hamburg arena celebrating 25 years audioplays of "Die 3 ???". Though not all of the original cast were with it it was extremely delightful to watch, especially the graveyard scene when the speakers lost control about themselves - Rohrbeck had a sudden fit of laughter and it took them some minutes to continue.
Some films were produced in Germany, and they had a problem with the boy playing Jupiter. In the cast he suited the role quite well, but when he was chosen to play the role decided he had to look better and decided to lose some weight...

[DarkQueenDiana]

I love those books and I have them all (almost)!
Wolfgang is right, the early ones are the best.
My favourite character is Bob, but I`m also really fond of Allie Jamison who appears only in the Singing Serpent and Death Trap Mine.
Here I prefer the german translation, not only because I think that Justus is a much better name than Jupiter for a first investigator!

[Nadja]

I absolutely loved the Three Investigator books as a kid! I used to buy them and devour them in about a couple of hours. I especially liked the earlier books in the series, with the original writer (Robert Arthur?) Wonderfully spooky goings-on..(even if that annoying Jupe was always able to expose them as fakes!) and I liked the interaction of the three investigators themselves, their different characters.
I would to love to re-read some of the books in this fab series. The very earliest ones.

[Nepolean]

I love the Three investigators too!
The first book that I read in that series was 'The mystery of the laughing shadow' and I loved it.
So far I have read about 20 books and I will surely buy all 43 of them.

There is another Three investigators series excluding the original 43 books.
It is called 'Crime busters'. I am not sure how many books there are in this series.

Has anyone read the 'Mystery of the silver spider'? It has a similar storyline to 'The circus of Adventure.'

[Nepolean]

The Hardy Boys are more famous than the Three investigators. But I have always felt that the Three investigators are a lot better than the Hardy boys. Has anyone felt that way?

[Spitfire]

The Hardy Boys are more famous than the Three investigators. But I have always felt that the Three investigators are a lot better than the Hardy boys. Has anyone felt that way?

Yes - Frank and Joe Hardy always seem quite shallow to me, (I believe these books were ghost-written, so maybe that's why) and a lot of their adventures - and the baddies - seemed very samey. I find that I like them even less than as an adult. The Three Investigators, on the other hand, still amuse and interest me. I really warm to the characters. I think I was drawn to these books partly because of the three boys, and because of the bizzare types of mysteries they tackled. The supernatural elements in the stories are so unconvincing as to be laughable, but somehow they're still readable and enjoyable.

I remember when I first read them being suprised and impressed that American youngsters addressed women as 'Ma'am'!!

[ria ann]

I have only read one- the mystery of the Skeleton Island (not sure if that is correct)
It was ok

[Nepolean]

Hi ria ann,

Try reading Mystery of the laughing shadow. It's a good book.